Trainer Romans hopes to run Preakness winner Shackleford at Belmont

May 22, 2011|By Kevin Van Valkenburg

Trainer Dale Romans said Sunday morning there is a better than 50 percent chance Preakness winner Shackleford will run in the Belmont Stakes in three weeks.

"If he trains like he did going into the Derby, I don't know why we would pass," Romans said. "I've always thought, just like Woody Stevens said along time ago, that the Belmont is really a speed horse's race. A mile and a half is such a grueling race, they'll all be tired when they get to the eighth pole."

Romans said he hopes Animal Kingdom will be there as well because a rivalry between the two would be good for horse racing.

"It would be great if we could develop a little rivalry inside the 3-year-old division," Romans said. "I think these 3-year-olds are a lot better than people are giving them credit for. This is a good group of horses."

Romans said he was going to send Shackleford back to Kentucky for a few days before he decided on his plans for New York, but that he planned to stick around in Baltimore for the Fasig Tipon auction this week.

"It's a good time to try and drum up some new business," Romans said.

Romans, who grew up on the race track as the son of a trainer, said he had only about an hour of sleep Saturday night. He showed up at Pimlico with coffee for the media and had some fun Sunday morning poking fun at his phsyique and the way he wears a suit.

"You know, I don't know how Todd Pletcher and Wayne Lukas do it," Romans said. "They look so pristine all the time. I walk to my car and I'm sweating and wrinkled. (My friend) told me I was the best he'd ever seen at making an expensive suit look cheap."